BIS refuse to give further information on #deact/#debill, not sure how to proceed.

With reference to my request to BIS for discussions which took place on the #deact I have received the below – I am _very_ surprised that the information I am requesting "is not held". Would be interested to see what, if anything, was sent by Mandleson to Sion Simon and Stephen Timms about making the #debill tougher than originally discussed and whether they tried to ensure it would be "washed up" as far back as August last year. Is there any legislation for retention of emails by gov depts that I should know of? Appreciate any advice on this

Dear Simon,

Thank you for your email.

I have detailed some further background below on the information you requested.

The first part of your request was for "Minutes of meetings which took place in August 2009 between Lord Mandelson and David Geffen". This information is not held by this department because there is not a record of such a meeting taking place as Ministerial business. You may be interested to know that the Department regularly publishes a list of Ministerial meetings on its website.

The second part of your request was for "all emails relating to the proposed digital economy bill from August 2009, September 2009 and October 2009 which were sent between Sion Simon, Lord Mandelson & Stephen Timms." To investigate your request, we conducted a thorough search of relevant electronic records (emails) that the department holds. I have established that the information you requested is not held. Even if this information was held, it may be subject to exemption under section 35(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act which applies to communications between Ministers.

I hope that this further information is helpful and would ask that you consider it before proceeding with your request for an internal review.